The Chairman of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Eric Kwabena Nyamekye, has described illegal mining, popularly called “galamsey”, as a monstrous phenomenon that requires all hands on deck to tackle, rather than leaving it in the hands of politicians.

He said the complexity of the galamsey menace and its devastating impact on the environment required that all stakeholders were brought on board to deal with its root causes in the interest of the country.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic last Friday, Apostle Nyamekye observed that the resurgence of illegal mining, three years into the fight against the menace, meant that more efforts were needed to stop the destruction of the environment.

“Something has been done to fight galamsey, but it is obvious that we have not done enough to stop it. If we had done things right, the Ankobra, the Pra and other water bodies would have been clean,” he said.

Galamsey fight

From 2017, the government took the fight against illegal mining to a higher level by banning all forms of small-scale mining in the country for almost two years until it was lifted on December 14, 2018.

An Inter-ministerial Committee on illegal mining (IMCIM) was also set up, comprising relevant ministries such as the Lands and Natural Resources; Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI); Local Government and Rural Development; Defence, and the Interior, to help bring sanity to the small-scale mining sector.

Subsequently, a joint security task force, dubbed, “Operation Vanguard”, was also deployed to mining communities to crack down on recalcitrant illegal miners.

Hundreds of excavators, boats for dredging and washing the ore body, known as chanfan machines, and other equipment were seized by the Operation Vanguard team at mining sites, a development that saw the condition of some water bodies improve.

However, a year after the lifting of the ban, there is a resurgence in galamsey activities in many parts of the country.

Some government officials and members of the Operation Vanguard team have also been cited for involving themselves in corrupt deals that promoted the illegality.

National call

Against that backdrop, Apostle Nyamekye said the time had come for a dispassionate national discourse on how to proceed with the galamsey fight to protect the environment from further deterioration.

He stressed that if the government was willing to stop the menace, all stakeholders needed to be brought to the discussion table to help take the bull by the horn.

“It will take the people of this generation to solve the galamsey problem that we see today. Angels will not come down from heaven to solve it for us” he said.

Samuel Amo Tobin, Chief Executive Officer of Tobinco Group of Companies

Chief Executive Officer of Tobinco Group of Companies, Samuel Amo Tobin believes there is still hope for young men and women struggling on the streets to become great entrepreneurs inf only society would give them the needed support.

According to him, great entrepreneurs of his calibre can be made if society and government draw these hawkers closer rather than stigmatizing them over their unhealthy appearances.

Narrating his own struggles in life Mr Tobin said, hawkers shouldn’t be undermined as he believes they can become great entrepreneurs like himself in future.

“…the whole society cannot be employed by the government, people must start from somewhere. Definitely these young guys you see on the street today, tomorrow their future will be a whole story by itself. Like I started I didn’t know I will get to this level, it’s amazing what God has done between those days with an elementary certificate from a poor home, family hawking on the streets of Accra. I didn’t know God will bring me this far.”

He added that, “this guys we see on the streets maybe they will do better that many of us because some of them are a bit educated than our past days when we started our businesses so I can say by 50 years to come, if the country will support these young guys one way or the other, if the society will accept them, sometimes they are being pushed out because of the way we see them (they sometimes smell, I was smelling the same way) I will not undermine those guys.”

Samuel Amo Tobin was speaking on “WHAT IS NEXT?” with host, Rev Dr Kwabena Opuni Frimpong.

The 2018 world corruption index ranked Ghana the 78th least corrupt country out of 180 and whilst some would think this is a cause for celebration, a former commissioner of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) believes there is nothing to celebrate.

According to Justice Emile Short, Ghana’s position is rather a cause for concern.

“It is cause for concern that we are 78 and it is true that there are many other countries who we are better than, but we must set high standards, we must not set mediocre standards for this country,” he said in an interview with Rev Kwabena Opuni Frimpong on ‘What is Next?’.

Nine African countries including Botswana and Rwanda were ranked ahead of Ghana.

Emile Short wasn’t thrilled with Ghana sharing the 78th position with Burkina Faso as he says Ghana’s democracy is far more advanced than our neighbour’s.

He, however, added that the level of corruption in the country is responsible for Ghana’s poor ranking.

He said political parties bribing voters with both money and goods when campaigning for office is one corrupt practice hurting the country.

“The primaries which have been held recently by both parties, it is public knowledge who are vying for political office have to bribe the delegates. So the highest bidder sort of wins and the highest bidder may not be the most competent person,” he cited.

He further noted that the failure of the leadership of political parties to condemn these acts encourages perpetrators to continue.

Justice Short added that politicians funding their own campaign also breeds corruption as they find ways of recovering what they spent on the elections and even more after winning elections.

He called for the consideration of public funding of political parties to end the alarming rate of political corruption in the country.

A former president of the Ghana Bar Association, Sam Okudzeto, says he’s regretted the decision of the association to boycott the drafting of the 1992 constitution.

He says even though the association wasn’t happy about the groups that were participating in the consultative assembly, they should have stayed on to ensure the constitution was properly written.

“The consulate assembly was boycotted by the bar association because they brought hairdressers and all manner of groups which know next to nothing about constitution or constitutionalism and constitution-making to clog the consulate assembly.

On hindsight, I’ve regretted that the bar boycotted it, they should still have been there to influence it,” Sam Okudzeto told Rev Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong in an interview on GTV’s What is Next?

According to the Council of State member, the absence of persons with knowledge on constitutionalism resulted in the drafting of a constitution which gives too much power to the president which shouldn’t be so.

“…that was done by the PNDC chaps in the consulate assembly because they do not want power to go away from their leader.”

Among powers he described as excessive for the president are the appointment of MMDCEs as well as board members and chairpersons of all government institutions.
“…the constitutional review commission has gone into all these and many of us have made presentations to them and the recommendations that they have made was to take away some of these excessive powers and even to have the MMDCEs elected.”

Sam Okudzeto is, therefore, appealing to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to revisit the recommendations made by the constitutional review commission and have the citizens vote on it.

“There is no reason why that document cannot be brought back… we can vote upon it and have a proper amendment. Look at the whole document and see that for the purposes of governance, it is better that power is diffused. The concentration of power is always dangerous even for you the president.”

Former Chairperson of the Church of Pentecost, Apostle Prof. Opoku Onyinah has urged Christians across the country not to frown on technology being used to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the current times.

According to him, technology is not as evil as some Christians, including pastors, perceive it.

With the outbreak of Coronavirus, the president of Ghana, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo put a ban on all social gatherings including church services.

Technology came to play in spreading the word of God in the country, especially on Sundays, with the leadership of various churches taking to social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube to share sermons with their members.

Some people are not too happy with this development as they believe the services on social media isn’t equal to the physical services they are used to.

But speaking to Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong on GTV’s ‘What is Next’, Apostle Onyinah stated that “we need to take every opportunity that we have now…God wants us to practice the invisible one (church) where you cannot see your brother but you are still connected to your brother.”

He added that it is time Christians put into practice scriptures such as “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” no matter the manner of worship.

Apostle Opoku Onyinah noted that the face of the world and gospel is going to change after the coronavirus pandemic and being able to adapt to the current system.

“We need to accept these new things and see the best way of using the new things to help our people… if we don’t train our people to use the modern gadgets then we’re not going to minister to the new generation because the new generation didn’t know the old things… now is the opportunity for all ministers of God to know that they are not the devil’s mouth. Whatever you have you can use it for either good or bad.”

“We should be able to train people to use modern gadgets for the kingdom business,” he added.

He further urged theological institutes to include teaching effective ministration on social media in the training of pastors after the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: www.ghanaweb.com